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Hello, fellow forum members!
Those of you who have been around the forums for over a year and half might remember an old suggestion I made, about a way to turn birch bark into lantern fuel. (For those interested in the old topic, you can read it here)
This suggestion was before the cooking update, so I decided to create a new thread and update it, with this mechanic in mind. Birch oil as a TLD alternative source of Lantern fuel Recipe: Outdoor campfire with a cooking pot would have an option to "make lantern fuel" - it would take 5 birch bark pieces, take 2 hours of cooking, and it would produce 0,2 to 0,3 l of Lantern fuel (depends on what the community considers to be a fair amount, note the poll) The best thing about it - the process is really simple, so simple it is realistic to attempt in the survival scenario. It would be great for the game because it would give the birch bark another use besides the tinder, which becomes obsolete after Level 3 fire-starting skill is reached. The poll: There is a poll for the community to determine what amount of lantern oil should be produced from the 5 pieces of birch oil and 2 hour cook time. Birch oil was used instead of kerosene in the oil-fueled lamps for a long time - some homesteaders use it to this day, because it is simple to make, out of natural resources, making it the perfect lantern fuel source in remote areas. It can be made out of several types of barks that are rich in oil - and birch bark is one of the, if not the richest, of them all. The only notable difference to kerosene is that this birch oil would produce heavy black smoke when burned. Other than that, their properties are highly similar. This is because there is a lot of black "ashes" from the charred bark, floating inside. If you took a filter of some sort and had the black oil seep through it, the resulting oil would be clean and produce next to no smoke at all. The byproduct of this is birch bark, turned into a charcoal. The vapors are a steam at first, the wood gas later - these byproducts are not collected during the process.
Since fish oil can be used as lantern oil, I assume the Storm lanterns work not only on kerosene, but on other oils as well. Filtered birch oil would work without any issue in my opinion, the polluted one should work too, though it would probably sediment the ash inside of the lamp, so frequent maintenance would be required.
For non believers I will be linking a YouTube tutorial video on how to make said oil, which I linked in the old thread as well:
Any and all comments and critique is welcomed. If this seems unbalanced, please offer your opinion on how to balance it - and lets discuss it.
I am also creating a new poll on how much lantern fuel should be produced this way.

Hello, fellow survivors!
So, as a part of a laid-back longterm game, I decided to try and achieve a pretty tedious task as soon as possible - in the first 50 days of the game, I looted most of the entire island, taking only basic of supplies, and attempting to locate all the research books I could. I took notes as to where I found them, in hopes this information would be of use to the rest of you. You will find my notes on locations in screenshots attached to the post. There are other locations I know of, I will eventually try to make a full list of all the locations that I can possibly remember - if you would like to contribute with your locations of books, feel free! We can create a "list" of possible locations as a community.
This game was custom difficulty mostly close to Voyageur, with the biggest amount of loot possible, so I can pinpoint the highest amount of spawnpoints of books.
I probably missed a few books still - regardless, my current library amounts to:
(Sewing) A sewing primer - 3 x
(Carcass harvesting) Field dressing your kill, vol. 1 - 5 x
(Rifles - big) Advanced guns guns guns! - 4 x
(Rifles - small) Frontier shooting guide - 4 x
(Archery) Stay on target - 6 x
(Firestarting) Survive outdoors! - 6 x
(Fishing) The frozen angler - 3 x
(Cooking) Wilderness kitchen - 7 x
(I believe I am missing a wilderness kitchen or frozen angler book somewhere from Mountain Town. Despite its size as a region, I found only a single book in there and I know that Milton House where Graymother used to live occasionally spawns a Wilderness kitchen book. It is probably somewhere in the houses in the town, which I havent looted yet.)
The reason I did this was to try and maximalize the effect of these books as early as possible, so that I am not "wasting" resources on poor skills or mistakes.
My current skills are at:
This includes approximatedly 35 arrow hits at various animals, 47 kg of meat harvested of the animals plus 1 bear hide, 4 deer skins and cca 8 guts. 45 kg of meat cooked, and at least 25 cans of food heated towards cooking skill. I have no idea how many campfires I have made succesfully but it will be around 30. I succesfully repaired clothes about 10 times. I didnt exactly keep a proper track of these things as initially I was only interested in finding the spawn locations. Still, as can be seen - most of the skills can easily be reached to level 4 with mostly the use of the books.
I also have to mention that I have not yet used the Advanced Guns guns guns! books because I am still hoping to find at least one more Frontier book somewhere, probably Mountain town.
Here are the things I learned:
-For the skills you use the most in the game - cooking, harvesting carcasses, firestarting, sewing, possibly even archery - it is best to use these books ASAP. Higher skill in these tasks means you waste less resources early on when your skills are low. Rifles are not neccesary unless you use rifle often - I reccomend patience there as Frontier books become unusable after level 3.
-The connector locations often have a book or two in them. I have not expected that initially. I am very glad I decided to check these locations thoroughly, too.
-Hushed River Valley is a problem for locations of the books - half of the research books found in this region spawn regularly inside of supply caches, which have pre-set contents, but somewhat random location spawns. One has to search for these specific supply caches if they want to get these books. The cache sets that I know contain books so far: Frontier shooting guide - in a cache hidden on top of Monolith lake plateau. Wilderness kitchen - in a cache that spawns somewhere in the bottom part of the map - the landslide/moose overlook area. I found it once in a cache in the middle of that bottom part of the map, and once in a cache which is in between the two rope climbs from Landslide area to Pensive vista (monolith lake area of the map).
-There can be more then 1 book of that particular type in the region.
-I have a theory there are 3 types of books - the "big books", the "medium books" and the "small books". When the game is spawned, the location determines what kind of a book spawns there. If the place spawns "big books" - it will be Advanced guns or Sewing primer. If it is "medium" it will be Survive outdoors, stay on target or Field dressing your kill. If it is "small", it will be wilderness kitchen, Frontier shooting guide or Frozen angler.
-Additionally, the spawn points seem to favor 1 of 2 possible types of books spawning there - meaning that you wont find a wilderness kitchen inside a fishing hut, but it will be either Frontier shooting guide, or frozen angler. While somewhat randomized, the books and their locations usually "make" sense.
-Per each region, there are several "possible spawnpoints" of these books - but only 1 place actually spawns them (it seems). For example, Mountain town has 3 locations of Big books that I am aware of, but only 1 seems to spawn per game - Advanced guns guns guns! can be found at plane crash, in an outdoor cave in the ravine to the left after you cross the "bear" bridge on a way from the plane crash, or at Baker´s farmstead inside.
In the attached pictures, you will find screenshots of my notes on the locations of these research books - I pointed out all the places that I found new and unusual, most of these are not very descriptive - but should give you general idea. Some of the locations were obvious (and initially, I didnt write them down, which was silly of me cause now I dont remember)

I've just recently started playing. I'm finding it a bit frustratingly slow, but then I'm a very conservative player. I do not want to DIE. It takes 3 days to dry a rabbit skin, so I wait around collecting firewood and boiling water. I think I will store water here and leave in 3 days with my stuff. I've decided I'll imagine I'm a map maker. Wish there was a survival end date. Example: Its winter survive until summer??? What other ways can I challenge myself to survive without risking I lose the entire game. Also, I would start again with so much more knowledge that I wonder if I should just go out and die and start over repeatedly to learn ? How do you play?

Hi everyone,
I’m really enjoying TLD and have put 30 hours in so far. Like most new players I made plenty of mistakes but I have tried to learn from them so as to keep that to a minimum in my most recent survival game. I’ve currently survived 52 days (Voyageur) and I’ve noticed a pattern of behaviour or more correctly a trap which has happened in all my other games.
After so long of staying in one place doing typical daily chores I quickly start to grow bored with the whole routine. Now this isn’t a criticism of the game, just an observation of my habits and to be honest the routine is entirely of my own making. I don’t have to follow the pattern of chop wood>light stove>melt snow>boil water>eat cooked venison from behind the cabin>mend clothes>drink water>sleep, but I somehow get fixated on that. In most cases I don't need to do it anyway because I have a massive stockpile, but somehow I think "I always need more!"
A very noticeable fact is this whole tedium after so long actually causes me to act out/rebel just for some much needed variation. Sadly this variation is when things typically go awry and all the careful learned survival lessons are literally thrown out of the cabin window.
Such is the immersion that in a way it seems to me that I very much become stir crazy and have contracted cabin fever long before my character ever suffers. So I go out on some random expedition for a change of scenery and do something daft which in previous games has ended in a very grisly way. The previous survival game it was the lunatic notion that instead of shooting a deer like I originally planned, I decided to take on the bear which just happened by. Opportunistic gambles like that don’t make a lot of sense after being so careful up that point. Another moment of insanity was in this current game when I decided it was about time to travel all the way to Broken Railroad, which I might add I have never explored before. All the while collecting every bit of shiny loot I can stuff into my pack along the way like some greedy magpie... even though I've repeatedly told myself to travel light. I wouldn't mind but this trip had a clear goal at the start "go find the forge in Forlorn Muskeg", yet it deviated from a simple achievable task to an elaborate risk filled adventure which almost ended very badly.
What causes this dramatic shift in behaviour, is it complacency? Have I grown sick of my character constantly whining about being hungry when she ate three extremely tasty moose steaks this morning and I'm trying to kill her off? Or is it more of the case that staying in the vicinity of somewhere safe for too long really does dull your survival smarts? I mean it’s really dangerous out there so why would I suddenly forget that and need a close call to wake up me up to reality? Or is it simply boredom of self-imposed routine? Perhaps in my case it's lack of experience.
The thing is when I choose to play the game always on the move I don’t seem to fall into this trap because I always feel I’m on edge and looking over my shoulder so I won't die horribly. Yet that whole mind set helps me to play the game better. I also took a great deal of care when I finally completed Hopeless Rescue on my fourth attempt and learnt a lot from it. So perhaps the best solution for me is snow shelters or open cave living, at least that way I'm constantly exposed to and aware of the risks. Sitting in one place it seems that the greatest danger is really myself.
I’m curious does anyone else abandon all common sense at times like this and if so how do you guard against it in future runs?

I've been trying to complete all of the challenges recently, which means i tend to get in a lot of contact with wolves. Something I've noticed about wolves that is rather annoying in my opinion is when they stalk you.
My main gripe about it is as the wolf is stalking you, I've noticed multiple times when the wolf's (lets just say timer) for stalking you runs out, and you can clearly see it has lost interest. But multiple times have i had it happen where the wolf looses interest, but instead of walking away, it just immediately detects me again, because it was close enough to start stalking again, leading to tracking across half of Timber wolf and Pleasant Valley, with a wolf on my butt. (Note; i did not have any meat or anything that attracts wolves.)
This is just my opinion, but it's something i wanted to put up there.

So I recently had an accident IRL that reminded me of some of my TLD follies, and it has made me realize just how fast fire can put you into a very dire situation... Especially if you were in a survival scenario.
I was burning some garbage and using Gasoline (I usually use diesel+motor oil, but had some old gas I didnt want to waste) to aid in getting a hot fire in order to better burn diapers. Unfortunately when I sloshed a bit more gas into the burn barrel, the wind gusted and blew the flaming gas back in my face. This engulfed my head in flames, it took about 1 second to realize what exactly was happening to me, at which time (beginning to panic) I set down the gas jug and began rolling on the ground and tearing my snap up shirt (which had also caught fire) off.
Once I was fully extinguished, and had my shirt off, I was in pretty bad shape. My eye-glasses and hat saved my eyes and most my hair, but I still got bad 1st degree and a mild 2nd degree burns on one side of my face. My right hand had gotten soaked in gasoline (most likely from me jumping back and inadvertently shaking jug as flaming gas came at my face) and suffered bad 2nd degree and moderate 3rd degree burns. As my 65% polyester shirt burned it also burned my chest and right arm, large areas of 1st and 2nd degree burns, with several small spots of 3rd degree burns.
The whole ordeal from the time I caught fire until I was fully extinguished was about 10 seconds, 15 seconds max. I couldnt believe how much damage was done in such a short amount of time.
In TLD I have had times that I accidently walked through a fire and had thought "that shouldnt have lowered my condition that much" but after this experience I have a much better understanding of how much damage fire can cause in a very short amount of time. In a survival situation a small accident with fire could very easily change your situation from "easily survivable" to "not survivable." I now think the burn mechanic in TLD is incorperated very well and inflicts appropriate damage for the balance of the game.
And as a word of caution to others, especially the young and curious, dont use accelerants to start fires IRL. I know we all think that we are careful and that we know what we are doing and it wont happen to us... I knew what I was doing, I have lit thousands of fires with gasoline and/or diesel, I am always careful... But this time it got me, got me very badly. I'm very lucky that it wasnt much worse, I could have easily been maimed for life, or possibly even killed.

Hello .
I had such an idea, I read in the description of the Location in the game Railway of the Mysterious Lake, well there about the Earthquakes that how it would be there, but it is not there, but it would be a pity so much harder to survive, well, because you never know when there were pushes.
And the usual places where the player usually passes would be closed, and new places would appear.
Yes, plus nature would have arranged surprises for the player, well, and since the animals go crazy, it is not known what the planet itself happened.

Hello again, I know you have a revolver in your plans, but what if there is a 44 caliber revolver, but what is it small and compact? Yes, and it is convenient to shoot from it, and in the game you need a sniper rifle, for example, next to the hunter’s house at the location of the Mysterious Lake Railway, there is a plateau from which you can open a bear hunt with this rifle. where he will not reach or even on a deer

Hello ,sorry I haven't posted on your website in the group in contact well, there is a group on The Long Dark , one guy offered the idea that if a bear fur and wolf to do a hood , how hunter Jeremy. And my question is when will the seasons , you are the plans I wrote about them , I honestly already tedious in the winter to survive. Thank you.

Last night I had a dream about TLD, not sure why, but some interesting things were different in it.
First, the silly thing: All hunting rifles in the game resembled Lebel 1886's, and each had a custom cloth wrap with a design, decal, or art of some type on the buttstock. It was actually kinda cool.
Second, the semi-serious thing: There was some type of Christmas event going on, and there were miniature snowmen scattered around more out-of-the-way places, and harvesting them revealed a random small item, ranging from a stone, to a lump of coal, to a can of peaches, you get the idea.
Just thought I'd post this, somebody might find it interesting!

The day shifted to 4, the flashlight immediately died out, snow started to fall. I'm in my cave with a lot of books to read. Just wondering if all the talk about fire and brimstone will turn out to be some russian hacker's devious scheme.

I don't wanna say that I am a pro player in this game but...I dunno. This is ridiculous:
I found enough water, tea and coffee packs to survive the next 8 realtime hours if I only stand in the Quonset-Garage.

I'm still at the dam, the aurora lights up the night, I might as well move elsewhere, at least visibility is good. Red eyed wolves were cool, it's a bit disappointing they became classic aurorized ones.
Anyway, I think I'll go back to my early days of TLD when I hacked my way through wolves and licked the hatchet afterwards. I torn apart enough curtains and I have plenty of antiseptic and sewing kits to enjoy a nice battle and patch up myself and my clothes.

I don't know how anyone is possibly surviving this. After exploring the entirety of the Coastal Highway on Day 1, I was fortunate to find a total of less than a half dozen candy bars. And I used them all to stay (barely) alive. I found a nifty cache with a rifle and stim as well, so I was feeling ok going into today... not great, since there was almost no food. Anywhere. I found only one carcass with only .8 kg of meat, and no fishing tackle. It's like the only food in the game for the event is an occasional candy bar, coffee, and tea. No fish. No canned goods. Nada.
On top of this, the permanent night mechanic seemed like a cool challenge - until I discovered that no matter how raging my fire, it did not warm me up! A serious WTF moment for me... I don't understand why they would do this. Is it a bug? If so, it's a pretty big one for a game that depends on light and warmth, with a special challenge of exacerbated darkness and cold. It certainly made exploring a whole map interesting...
Then, Day 2. I'm holed up with plenty of firewood and gear (though I'm beginning to realize that much of it is useless, since it's garbage in eternal night where fire doesn't warm you up, and the only food items are coffee, tea, and candy bars...), but no food. So I leave the safety of my shelter, and I am immediately attacked by a wolf. It's like hyper-aggressive mode - one bark, and BAM! I didn't even have time to equip the rifle. Five(!) injuries from the attack, two *new* articles of clothing ruined, and even though I fought it off with the hatchet, the wolf escapes unscathed?!? No blood trail or whimpering at all - not that it matters, as I had to try to get back inside. I failed to make it to the (very) nearby shelter, of course, owing to... wait for it: WOLF ATTACK! Again, WTF? Dead within 15 minutes of turning the game on.
I took a second shot at it, just to see how it went starting out with the wolves active (I mean, it's not like they are turned off normally, right?). The experience was even worse from a food standpoint - where I had started with a candy bar the first time, I started with nothing the second. And found... wait for it: nothing. After making it to more than half the structures in Coastal Highway, and fighting off another wolf attack, I literally did not find a single candy bar, or food item of any kind. Needless to say, I starved to death after trying to survive on one tin of coffee.
I'm kind of put out by the whole experience. I love this game, and have about 125 hours in it, and started playing well before the official release. I recently returned to it to check out the story mode, which is enjoyable (albeit a bit too much like a tutorial for an experienced player). But unlike basically every other game with special events which are meant to be an added dose of fun, this one seems like it was either poorly conceived, or intentionally nasty to the loyal fans. C'est la vie, I suppose. Bon chance to all of you who are already having better luck than I was!

I only got to play for about an hour on day 1 due to RL, and had to stop suddenly while outside between four corners and the CH/PV mine to get the coal and water I stashed. I have a super-charged flashlight, some clothes, and plenty of calories, but have only a crowbar to fend off demon wolves until the aurora arrives. I assume I'll be dead shortly after I resume.
This brings me to my question:
For those of you starting fresh after a furry encounter, or who didn't get a chance to play on day 1, are you finding any way to catch up, without the freedom to run around carefree collecting loot? Any tips you can share?

I've got 15,000 calories and a good amount of water, tea, coffee, and sticks.
I think I'll just wait this one out in the (pitch-black) ML camp office.
(I should add, I don't have a hatchet or hammer to smack the woofs with...)

Hi everyone, my name is Gabriele and I play to "the long dark" since day of publish. I have same ideas to improve the game, and I will be very happy to tolk about it with the community.
frist of all for the weapon could be add the spears, they can be launched and used to ward off the wolfs, for the animals colud be add the foxs, and with their furs the player can made a scarf or hat, could be add also the seals, they can be found on the ice and with the furs can make a waterproof dress, obviously this animals give to the player meet and the seals give the oil too.
On the ice near the sea, the player can find the whale's carcassis, near the player find the bears wolfs and the whale give to the players oil meat and the amber gris, that have a medications and can be used to to attract animals
There are same ideas to improve the gameplay I hope that this ideas can be helpful
Have a nice day ?

So I think I've seen the idea of doing something more with bodies come up before, and I definitely think that we should be able to dispose of them in some way (I hate having to see the body of some frozen dude every time I go into my base, really puts a damper on the mood).
Once you've searched a body, you should have the option to bury it. This process takes a significant amount of time and energy and requires a tool (perhaps you could even add a shovel to the game that would make this easier), but once you've done it the body is gone. At the minimum, this is all you'd need, but then I had the idea of having some sort of reward for this respectable task.
That being that after you bury a body and X amount of time passes, a new body appears somewhere on the map. There'd be no guarantee that it would have anything on it, the gear would be the same as any other corpse, but you could then bury this body and so on and so forth, a potential and demanding way to acquire special resources other than beach-combing.

Yo! Mah name is Donald and I'd like to give some suggestions for the game.
1. Need new weapons. I think The Long Dark needs new projectiles. There is only a Rifle and A bow. How About a sling shot or something.

So, I absolutely love this game and I am going to continue playing it for quite a while, but there is something that I think could make this game even better. A multiplayer survival mode!! Imagine being able to play 1-4 people on survival mode!! That would be so much fun! What do you guys think?